Image: Queen Square Farmers Market, Facebook page.
The Queen Square Farmers Market will be returning to uptown Saint John for its 10th season this summer, but organizers have made some changes to adjust to COVID-19 regulations.
The weekly market will return Sunday, June 7 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and is expected to run every Sunday through Thanksgiving in Queen Square. But organizer Andre Robichaud says attendees can expect things to look a little different this season.
They had originally planned some community events to celebrate the 10th season, but with COVID-19 those plans were put on hold. Instead, they had to make changes to be made to the market’s operation and overall layout.
“Once we actually got the green light that we could open again this year, we had to pivot from that to completely revamping the market to comply with all the public health requirements,” says Robichaud. “It’s kind of ironic. Our first market in 2011 had to be postponed because of Hurricane Irene, so we’re used to pivoting I guess.”
This season, organizers have changed the market’s layout to comply with physical distancing regulations.
“We have a layout that will allow for social distancing between vendors, social distancing between patrons, and allows for smooth traffic flow. It takes advantage of a much flat space as possible for our vendors, because Queen Square is on a hill,” says Robichaud.
“We had a lot of factors to take into account but we think we’ve come up with something that’s going to make maximum use of the space.”
Robichaud says the layout will look like a giant number seven, going across the top and going diagonally down through the centre of the square.
“It’s not a layout that we had in the past. It will be something new and different, but we think it’s really going to work and we’re excited to see it in place.”
He says the plan has been submitted to Public Health, which wants to ensure organizers addressing issues such as congestion and crowding.
“We had to come up with an operational plan and that’s been submitted to Public Health for how we’re going to meditate with all the issues of having a farmers market. Our new layout addresses part of that,” says Robichaud.
“We’re going to have one-way traffic through the square and the vendors will be set back on the lawn slightly so the lineups for the vendors don’t get in the way of people passing.”
The majority of the same food and farm vendors will be returning this year, with some new artisans slated to set up shop. Each vendor has to have their own operational plan in place, which will need to be with them on-site every week.
“Public Health will be coming to check on that. We’ve already told everybody,” says Robichaud. “We’ve actually required them to submit a copy of that to us too to make sure that all the I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed.”
The Queen Square Farmers Market has been a place for many to gather with family and friends and picnic on the grass. Robichaud says they are trusting the public to respect physical distancing and stay within their “bubbles” of close contacts.
“Part of our early markets is going to be building that trust relationship between the public and us and between us and public health,” he says. “We think most people will be pretty good about that. We’ve seen that out in the community already that people are taking it fairly seriously.”
Though the market will look a little different this year, Robichaud’s confident it will be another good season.
“I think in general people are going to be pretty good at it,” he says. “People are really excited for the market to open and it’s been a really positive place year-over-year since it opened and I don’t expect that to change this year.”
Cherise Letson is the associate editor of Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
